Trading journal
How to Keep a Trading Journal That Actually Improves Your Trading
A practical guide to keeping a trading journal: what to record, when to write, how to review it each week and how to turn your notes into better rules.
The TradeThink blog
Practical guides on trading journals, risk, performance metrics, options and trading psychology, written for traders who want to understand their own numbers.
Trading psychology
Revenge Trading: How to Recognize It and Stop It Before It Costs You
What revenge trading is, why it happens after a loss, the warning signs, and practical rules that stop one bad trade from turning into a bad day.
Risk management
Position Sizing: How Many Shares or Contracts Should You Trade?
A step-by-step guide to position sizing for stocks, options and futures: the fixed-risk formula, worked examples, and the mistakes that make good strategies lose money.
Performance metrics
Win Rate vs Profit Factor: Which Metric Really Matters?
Why a high win rate can still lose money, how profit factor captures the full picture, and how to read the two metrics together to judge your trading.
Options trading
The Options Greeks Explained: Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega and Rho
A plain-English guide to the option greeks: what delta, gamma, theta, vega and rho measure, how they change, and how traders use them to understand risk.
Futures, forex and crypto
Futures Trading Basics: Contracts, Ticks, Margin and Expiration
A beginner-friendly guide to futures: what a contract is, contract specifications, tick size and value, margin, leverage, expiration and how P&L is calculated.
Strategy and analysis
Backtesting vs Journaling: Why You Need Both to Prove Your Edge
What backtesting tells you, what it cannot, why live trading results differ, and how a trading journal closes the gap between a strategy on paper and in practice.
Rules, taxes and records
The Wash Sale Rule for Traders: How It Works and How to Track It
How the US wash sale rule disallows losses when you rebuy within 30 days, how the disallowed loss carries into the new position, examples, and how active traders keep track.
Trading journal
What to Record in a Trading Journal: 15 Fields That Matter
The fields every trading journal should have, from entry and exit details to setup, mistakes, emotions and execution rating, with examples of each.
Trading psychology
FOMO in Trading: Why You Chase Moves and How to Stop
Fear of missing out makes traders chase entries, skip their plan and buy tops. Learn the signs of FOMO and practical ways to trade calmly when a move takes off without you.
Risk management
The 1% Rule in Trading: Does It Still Make Sense?
The 1% rule says to risk no more than 1% of your account per trade. Learn the math behind it, when 2% or 0.5% may fit better, and how it protects you from ruin.
Performance metrics
Trading Expectancy: The Formula That Tells You If You Have an Edge
How to calculate trading expectancy in dollars and in R, worked examples, and how to use expectancy to compare setups and decide what to trade.
Options trading
The Covered Call: How It Works, Payoff, Risks and When to Use It
How a covered call works, its payoff at expiration, a worked example, the risks of assignment and capped upside, and how to track covered calls in a journal.
Futures, forex and crypto
Micro Futures: Smaller Contracts for Precise Position Sizing
How micro futures contracts work, how they compare with standard and E-mini contracts, and why they make risk management easier for smaller accounts.
Strategy and analysis
Moving Average Strategies: Crossovers, Trend Filters and Dynamic Support
How traders use simple and exponential moving averages for trend direction, crossover signals, pullback entries and trailing stops, and the trade-offs of each approach.
Rules, taxes and records
Trader Tax Status and the Mark-to-Market Election: An Overview
How the IRS distinguishes investors, traders and dealers, what trader tax status means, how the section 475(f) mark-to-market election works and its deadlines.
Trading journal
Trading Journal Template: A Simple Layout You Will Keep Using
A free trading journal template for daily, per-trade and weekly entries, with the exact questions to answer and how to adapt it for stocks, options and futures.
Trading psychology
Overtrading: 7 Signs You Trade Too Much and How to Fix It
How to tell if you are overtrading, why more trades often means lower profits, and practical limits that keep you focused on your best setups.
Risk management
Where to Place a Stop Loss: 5 Methods and Their Trade-offs
How to place a stop loss using structure, volatility, percentage, time and indicators, with the pros and cons of each and the common mistakes to avoid.
Performance metrics
Profit Factor Explained: What Is a Good Profit Factor?
How to calculate profit factor, what values are good for day traders and swing traders, its limitations, and how to use it alongside other metrics.
Options trading
The Cash-Secured Put: Getting Paid to Wait for a Lower Price
How selling a cash-secured put works, its payoff, a worked example with break-even and assignment, the risks, and how it compares with a covered call.
Futures, forex and crypto
Forex Pips, Lots and Leverage: The Math Every FX Trader Needs
How pips, pipettes and lot sizes work in forex, how to calculate pip value and position size, and how leverage and swap affect your results.
Strategy and analysis
Support and Resistance: How to Find Levels That Matter
What support and resistance are, how to identify meaningful levels, why levels can flip, and how to use them for entries, stops and targets.
Rules, taxes and records
Section 1256 Contracts: The 60/40 Tax Rule for Futures and Index Options
What section 1256 contracts are, how the 60/40 rule and year-end mark-to-market work, which instruments qualify, and how they are reported on Form 6781.
Trading journal
The Weekly Trading Review: A 30-Minute Routine That Compounds
How to run a weekly trading review: the numbers to check, the questions to ask, and how to pick one change for next week. Includes a step-by-step routine.
Trading psychology
Loss Aversion in Trading: Why Losses Hurt More and What It Does to Your Results
Loss aversion makes traders hold losers and sell winners too early. Learn how this bias shows up in your trades and how to counter it with rules and data.
Risk management
Risk-Reward Ratio Explained: How It Connects to Your Win Rate
What the risk-reward ratio means, the break-even win rate for each ratio, and why a high ratio alone does not make a strategy profitable.
Performance metrics
The Sharpe Ratio for Traders: What It Measures and How to Use It
How the Sharpe ratio measures risk-adjusted returns, how to calculate it from daily trading returns, what values are typical, and its limitations for active traders.
Options trading
The Iron Condor: A Defined-Risk Strategy for Range-Bound Markets
How an iron condor works, its four legs, maximum profit and loss, break-even prices, a worked example, and how to manage it before expiration.
Futures, forex and crypto
CFD Trading Explained: How Contracts for Difference Work and Their Risks
What CFDs are, how they work, margin and leverage, overnight financing, the risks for retail traders, and how to track CFD trades from MT4, MT5 and other platforms.
Strategy and analysis
Breakout Trading: How to Trade Breakouts and Avoid False Breaks
How breakout trading works, what makes a breakout more reliable, entries, stops and targets, and how to deal with false breakouts.
Rules, taxes and records
Short-Term vs Long-Term Capital Gains: A Primer for Traders
How US capital gains are classified by holding period, how short-term and long-term gains are taxed, the $3,000 loss limit, carryforwards and reporting basics.
Trading journal
Trading Journal App vs Spreadsheet: Which Should You Use?
The pros and cons of tracking trades in Excel or Google Sheets versus a dedicated trading journal, and when it makes sense to switch.
Trading psychology
Why You Cut Your Winners Early (and How to Let Them Run)
Taking profits too soon is one of the most common reasons traders with a good win rate still lose money. Here is how to diagnose it and fix it with exit rules.
Risk management
Maximum Drawdown: Why Losses Are Harder to Recover Than You Think
What maximum drawdown is, how to calculate it, the gain needed to recover from each drawdown, and how to keep drawdowns small enough to survive.
Performance metrics
The Sortino Ratio: A Better Risk Measure for Traders?
How the Sortino ratio differs from the Sharpe ratio, how to calculate downside deviation, and when the Sortino ratio gives a fairer picture of a trading strategy.
Options trading
Vertical Spreads: Bull Call and Bear Put Debit Spreads Explained
How debit vertical spreads work, how to calculate maximum profit, maximum loss and break-even, and why traders use spreads instead of single options.
Futures, forex and crypto
MT4 and MT5 Trading Journal: Analyze Your MetaTrader History
How to export your trading history from MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, what the built-in reports miss, and how to analyze forex and CFD trades in a journal.
Strategy and analysis
VWAP Trading: How Day Traders Use the Volume-Weighted Average Price
What VWAP is, how it is calculated, why institutions watch it, and how day traders use VWAP for trend bias, pullback entries and reclaim setups.
Rules, taxes and records
Trading Records to Keep: A Checklist for Taxes, Audits and Your Own Analysis
Which trading records to keep, for how long, and how to organize statements, confirmations, deposits, fees and journal notes so tax time and analysis are easy.
Trading journal
How to Tag Your Trades: Setups, Mistakes and Market Conditions
A simple tagging system for your trading journal that makes it easy to see which setups make money and which mistakes cost the most.
Trading psychology
Trading Discipline: 10 Rules That Keep You Consistent
Discipline in trading comes from clear rules and simple routines, not willpower. Here are ten rules most consistent traders use, and how to make them stick.
Risk management
The Kelly Criterion for Traders: Optimal Bet Size and Its Dangers
How the Kelly criterion calculates the bet size that maximizes long-term growth, how to apply it to trading, and why most traders use half Kelly or less.
Performance metrics
Average Win vs Average Loss: The Ratio Behind Every Profitable Trader
How to calculate your average win and average loss, why their ratio matters as much as your win rate, and how to improve it.
Options trading
Credit Spreads: Bull Put and Bear Call Spreads for Income
How credit spreads work, how to calculate the credit, maximum loss and break-even, how they compare with naked options, and how to manage them.
Futures, forex and crypto
Crypto Trading Journal: Tracking Spot, Futures and Perpetual Trades
How to journal crypto trades across exchanges, handle fees paid in different coins, funding payments and 24/7 markets, and which metrics matter for crypto traders.
Strategy and analysis
The RSI Indicator: Overbought, Oversold and Divergence Explained
How the relative strength index is calculated, what overbought and oversold really mean, divergences, and how to use RSI as a filter rather than a signal on its own.
Rules, taxes and records
How to Read Your Broker Statement: Trades, Fees, Cash and Positions
A guide to the main sections of a brokerage statement, what each line means, how to spot fees and corporate actions, and how to reconcile your statement with your journal.
Trading journal
Pre-Market Routine: A Checklist for Every Trading Day
A step-by-step pre-market routine and checklist for day traders: market context, watchlist, levels, risk limits and a mental check before the open.
Trading psychology
How to Handle a Losing Streak Without Blowing Up Your Account
Losing streaks are normal even for profitable traders. Learn how long they can last, how to tell bad luck from a broken strategy, and what to do while you are in one.
Risk management
Daily Loss Limit: The One Rule That Protects You From Your Worst Days
How to set a daily loss limit for day trading, why it works, how big it should be, and how to make sure you actually stop when you hit it.
Performance metrics
MAE and MFE: How Far Your Trades Go Against You and For You
Maximum adverse excursion (MAE) and maximum favorable excursion (MFE) reveal whether your stops are too tight and whether you exit winners too early. Here is how to use them.
Options trading
Straddle vs Strangle: Trading Big Moves in Either Direction
How long straddles and strangles work, their costs and break-evens, how volatility affects them, and when traders choose one over the other.
Futures, forex and crypto
Futures Rollover: When and How to Roll Your Contracts
Why futures need to be rolled, how to identify the roll period, calendar spreads, the costs of rolling, and how rollover affects your charts and journal.
Strategy and analysis
Gap Trading: Gap and Go vs Gap Fade Strategies
Why stocks gap at the open, the difference between gap-and-go and gap-fade setups, what affects which one works, and how to manage the risk of trading gaps.
Rules, taxes and records
Importing Trades From Your Broker: CSV Exports Without the Headaches
How to export trades from your broker, which report to choose, common CSV problems with dates, symbols and time zones, and how to check an import is complete.
Trading journal
12 Post-Trade Review Questions That Reveal Your Real Mistakes
The questions to ask after each trade and each session to separate bad luck from bad decisions, with examples of honest answers.
Trading psychology
Confirmation Bias in Trading: Seeing Only What You Want to See
How confirmation bias leads traders to ignore warning signs, hold losing positions and overrate their ideas, and practical habits that counter it.
Risk management
ATR Stop Loss: Using Average True Range to Set Smarter Stops
How to use the average true range (ATR) to set stop losses and position sizes that adapt to volatility, with formulas, multipliers and examples.
Performance metrics
The Calmar Ratio: Return Compared With Your Worst Drawdown
How the Calmar ratio compares annual return with maximum drawdown, how to calculate it, what good values look like and when it is more useful than the Sharpe ratio.
Options trading
Implied Volatility Explained: What Option Prices Say About Future Moves
What implied volatility is, how it relates to expected moves, IV rank and percentile, volatility crush after events, and how IV affects option strategies.
Futures, forex and crypto
Forex Trading Sessions: When Each Market Is Most Active
The Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York forex sessions, when they overlap, how volatility changes through the day, and how to find the session that suits you.
Strategy and analysis
Pullback Trading: Buying Dips in an Uptrend (and Selling Rips in a Downtrend)
How to trade pullbacks within a trend, how to tell a healthy pullback from a reversal, entry triggers, stop placement and how to measure your pullback setups.
Rules, taxes and records
The Pattern Day Trader Rule Is Being Replaced: What Day Traders Need to Know
How the old US pattern day trader rule and $25,000 minimum worked, what FINRA's new intraday margin standards change from June 2026, and what still applies.
Trading journal
Using Chart Screenshots in Your Trading Journal
Why chart screenshots make your trading journal more useful, what each screenshot should show, and how to review them to find patterns in your entries and exits.
Trading psychology
Trading on Tilt: What It Is and a Simple Plan to Stop It
Tilt is the emotional state where frustration takes over your trading. Learn the triggers, the warning signs, and a step-by-step plan to stop before the damage is done.
Risk management
Risk of Ruin: The Probability of Blowing Up Your Account
What risk of ruin means in trading, the factors that drive it, and how risk per trade, win rate and payoff ratio change your chance of a catastrophic drawdown.
Performance metrics
System Quality Number (SQN): Scoring Your Trading System
What the System Quality Number is, how to calculate it from your R-multiples, how to read the scores, and the pitfalls of using it on small samples.
Options trading
Theta Decay: How Time Erodes Option Value
How theta and time decay work, why decay speeds up near expiration, how it affects long and short option positions, and how to use it in your strategy.
Futures, forex and crypto
Prop Firm Rules Explained: Daily Loss, Max Drawdown and Consistency
How funded trader and prop firm evaluations typically work, the common rules on daily loss, trailing drawdown and consistency, and how to track them so you do not fail on a technicality.
Strategy and analysis
Trend Following: Principles, Rules and Why It Is Hard to Stick With
The core principles of trend following, typical entry and exit rules, the low win rate and long drawdowns to expect, and how a journal helps you stay disciplined.
Rules, taxes and records
Compound Growth in a Trading Account: Realistic Returns and the Math
How compounding works in a trading account, why small consistent returns grow large over time, why drawdowns hurt compounding, and how to set realistic expectations.
Trading journal
How to Journal Your Emotions While Trading (and Why It Pays)
Recording your mood before and after trading reveals how emotions affect your results. Here is a simple method and how to analyze what you find.
Trading psychology
Trading Burnout: How to Spot It and Keep a Sustainable Routine
Long hours, constant screen time and emotional swings can lead to trading burnout. Here are the signs and the habits that keep trading sustainable for the long run.
Risk management
R-Multiples: The Best Way to Measure Your Trades
What R-multiples are, how to calculate them, and why measuring trades in units of risk makes your results comparable, honest and easier to improve.
Performance metrics
How to Read Your Equity Curve: 6 Patterns and What They Mean
Your equity curve tells the story of your trading. Learn to read slope, smoothness, drawdowns, step changes and flat periods, and what each one suggests you should do.
Options trading
How to Read an Options Risk Profile Chart
A guide to options risk profile (payoff) charts: the expiration line, the today line, break-evens, maximum profit and loss, and how to use the chart before and during a trade.
Futures, forex and crypto
Perpetual Futures and Funding Rates: What Crypto Traders Need to Know
How perpetual futures work in crypto, what funding rates are, how funding payments affect your P&L, and how to account for them in your trading journal.
Strategy and analysis
Bollinger Bands: Volatility, Squeezes and Mean Reversion
How Bollinger Bands are calculated, what band width tells you about volatility, the squeeze setup, walking the bands in trends, and mean-reversion uses.
Rules, taxes and records
Cash Flow in a Trading Account: Separating Trading Results From Deposits
Why account balance growth is not the same as trading performance, how to separate deposits, withdrawals, fees, dividends and interest, and how to read a cash flow statement for your account.
Trading journal
Monthly Trading Performance Review: What to Measure and Why
A monthly review routine for traders: the key metrics to track month over month, how to compare months fairly, and how to set goals for the next month.
Trading psychology
Process vs Outcome: Judging Your Trades by Decisions, Not Results
A single trade's result is mostly luck. Learn why judging trades by process leads to better long-term results, and how to measure your process in a journal.
Risk management
Correlation Risk: When Five Trades Are Really One
How correlated positions multiply your risk, how to spot hidden correlation across stocks, sectors, currencies and crypto, and how to size around it.
Performance metrics
Measuring Trading Consistency: Beyond Total Profit
How to measure whether your trading is consistent, using winning days and weeks, the share of profit from your best days, monthly results and streaks.
Options trading
Butterfly Spreads and the Iron Butterfly: Targeting a Price
How long call butterflies and iron butterflies work, their maximum profit, maximum loss and break-evens, with worked examples and management tips.
Strategy and analysis
Opening Range Breakout (ORB): A Day Trading Strategy Explained
How the opening range breakout strategy works, choosing the range length, entries, stops, targets, filters and how to measure whether ORB works for you.
Trading journal
Find Your Best Trading Hours by Analyzing Results by Time of Day
How to analyze your trading results by hour of the day, why most day traders do best in certain windows, and what to do with what you find.
Trading psychology
The Danger After a Big Win: Overconfidence in Trading
Your worst trading days often follow your best ones. Learn why overconfidence sets in after a big win and how to protect your gains.
Risk management
Leverage and Margin Explained: How Borrowed Money Amplifies Risk
How leverage and margin work in stocks, futures, forex and CFDs, how margin calls happen, and how to think about leverage in terms of risk rather than buying power.
Performance metrics
How Many Trades Do You Need Before Your Statistics Mean Anything?
Why small samples mislead traders, how the number of trades affects the reliability of win rate and expectancy, and how to use Monte Carlo simulation to test your edge.
Options trading
Protective Puts and Collars: Insuring a Stock Position
How a protective put limits downside on stock you own, how a collar pays for that protection by selling a call, with payoffs, examples and trade-offs.
Strategy and analysis
How to Build a Trading Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide With Template
What a trading plan should include, from goals and markets to setups, risk rules, routines and review, with a template you can adapt.
Trading journal
Day-of-Week Trading Performance: Do You Trade Worse on Mondays?
How to analyze your trading results by weekday, the common patterns traders find, and how to use them without overfitting.
Risk management
Trailing Stops: How to Lock In Profits Without Exiting Too Early
How trailing stops work, the main methods (percentage, ATR, structure and moving average), and how to choose one that fits your strategy.
Performance metrics
Holding Time Analysis: Are You Holding Losers Longer Than Winners?
How analyzing trade duration reveals hidden habits, why many traders hold losing trades longer than winners, and how to use holding time to improve exits.
Options trading
Options Assignment and Expiration: What Happens and How to Prepare
What happens to options at expiration, how exercise and assignment work, early assignment risk, pin risk, and how to avoid surprises in your account.
Trading journal
The Trading Calendar Heatmap: Seeing Your Results Day by Day
How a P&L calendar heatmap helps you spot losing streaks, overtrading and patterns in your trading, and what to look for when you review it.
Risk management
Scaling In and Out of Trades: Pros, Cons and Rules
How scaling into and out of positions works, when it helps, how it changes your risk, and how to track scaled trades correctly in a journal.
Performance metrics
How Commissions and Fees Eat Into Your Trading Profits
How commissions, exchange fees, spreads and slippage add up, how to calculate their impact on your edge, and practical ways to keep trading costs under control.
Options trading
How to Track Options Trades in a Trading Journal
What to record for options trades, how to handle multi-leg spreads, rolls, assignment and expiration in a journal, and which metrics matter for options traders.
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